The Internet of Things encompasses all embedded devices and networks that are natively IP-enabled and Internet-connected, along with the Internet services monitoring and controlling those devices. Such IP-enabled embedded devices connected to the internet are termed endpoints and include sensors, machines, active positioning tags, radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers and building automation equipment to name but a few.
Data exchange between programs, computers and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) is a vital element. Different programs, computers and processors are used in different environments. On the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the basic protocol used in communication. TCP/IP takes care of assembling and disassembling the data to be transmitted in packets. IP handles the addressing so that packets are delivered to the correct destination and above TCP/IP, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used as a client/server protocol whereby a program may send an HTTP request to a server which responds with another HTTP message.
The Wireless Embedded Internet is a subset of the Internet of Things and is generally represented by resource-limited embedded devices, often battery powered and connected by low-power, low-bandwidth wireless networks to the Internet.
Current web service technologies have high power and large bandwidth demands neither of which are compatible with low-power networks. Recently, binary web service protocols have been developed for low-power wireless networks. A binary web service solution includes the use of a suitable web service protocol (such as simplified HTTP or a binary web service protocol such as Constrained Application Protocol CoAP) and an efficient content encoding (such as Efficient XML Interchange EXI, Binary XML or Fast Infoset FI).
An example of a network technology where Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication is widely applied is a low-power wireless network, such as an IEEE 802.15.4 based embedded and sensor network. More recently, as M2M devices have become IP enabled, systems have become more open by using IP as a networking protocol.
Following the introduction of IEEE 802.15.4 other standards were developed to standardize an IP adaption for such wireless embedded links. For example, the IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Standard (6LoWPAN) is a set of standards which enable the efficient use of IPv6 over low-power, low-rate wireless networks on simple embedded devices through an adaption layer and the optimization of related protocols.
The Open Mobile Alliance Lightweight LWM2M is a new standard applicable to 6LoWPAN and is focussed on constrained cellular and M2M devices. A Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LWM2M) Bootstrap process is used to provide mandatory information through the Bootstrap Interface for LWM2M Clients so that they can perform the registration with one or more LWM2M Servers. After the bootstrap sequence, the Clients have an LWM2M Server Account and optionally some other object instances, such as Access Control or Connectivity Object.
It is an object of the present technique is to provide additional features to the LWM2M Bootstrap process.